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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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• Frequently asked Questions (419 FAQ)
• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
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• Company names mentioned in 419 spam:
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Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.

Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

• An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "million british pounds" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
• This email message is a next of kin scam.
• This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
  • andrew_smith_19766@yahoo.co.uk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: andrew smith <smith_andrew_44@yahoo.co.uk>
Reply-To: andrew_smith_19766@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 18:53:09 +0100 (BST)
Subject: CONTACT ME FAST.


Newburgh House
Charter Court Way
Swansea west Glam
SA7 9EH
United Kingdom
andrew_smith_19766@yahoo.co.uk

Hello,
I am Mr. Smith Andrew, an Auditor of a London bank. During the course of our auditing, I discovered a floating fund of (£10M.) Ten Million British Pounds in an account opened in the bank in 2004 and since Jan 2005 nobody has operated on this account.

After a lot of investigation I discovered that the owner of the account late Rafik Hariri died without a beneficiary. The money is floating and if I do not remit this money out it will be forfeited for nothing. The owner of the account is a foreigner. He died since February 14, 2005 and the account has no other beneficiary. My investigation proved to me that nobody
knows about this account or anything concerning it. So I want to grab this opportunity, as it is no harm to nobody to transfer the money out.

I need your assistance as a foreigner because the money cannot be approved to anybody here. The management must approve this payment to you if you have the correct information of this account, which I will give to you, upon your positive response and once I am convinced that you are capable and will meet up with instruction of key bank official who is deeply involved with me in this project.

With our influence, we can transfer the money to any foreigner’s reliable account, which you can provide with assurance that this money will be intact pending our physical arrival at your end for sharing. At the conclusion of this business, you and I can share the money, 50% to me and 50% to you, and I will personally be happy if you can respond to this immediately so that we can receive these funds from the bank immediately.

Regards.
Mr. Smith Andrew.


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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam